Rumblings Archive

Apple has traditionally been -- how shall we put it -- cagey with revealing memory and CPU specifics of its mobile devices, but MacRumors is today reporting its discovery that the fourth-gen iPhone's RAM apportionment will be a very healthy 512MB. We've heard similar rumblings from reliable sources of our own. What it means is that iPhone 4 users can look forward to not only the same processor (though potentially at a lower speed) as their iPad compatriots, but also double the memory allowance. Of course, this will hardly be the first handset to offer half a gig for the OS to dance inside, but at least Apple's keeping up with the times. Wouldn't wanna disappoint all those pre-orderers now, would we?

Although we've been running iPhone OS 4 -- now known as iOS 4 -- since it was first announced in April, we actually haven't been able to try out any of the fancy new multitasking features, since no third party apps have been released with support yet. That's all about to change: as of today, Apple is accepting iOS 4 apps, which means we should see quite a few apps that take advantage of multitasking on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, as well as make use of the 1500 other new APIs in the system when it launches on June 21.

That's definitely good news, but we've got a feeling Apple's unique take on iPhone multitasking will take a few people by surprise, as only certain tasks are allowed in the background -- and apps that need to run persistently, like IRC and IM clients, still won't really work at all. In fact, there's already some rumblings by devs that they need additional backgrounding tools in order to provide features that users are asking for; Instapaper's Marco Ament has proposed a network polling API that would allow his app to update content in the background, for example. We'll see how quickly Apple responds to these requests, but for right now we're just happy we'll finally be able to switch away from a Skype call or GPS app while using our iPhones.

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/webOS_design_mastermind_Matias_Duarte_exits_Palm_for_Google'; According to a report filed over at All Things D, Matias Duarte -- the man considered to be the driving force behind the user interface of webOS -- has left Palm, and may very well be headed to Google. Duarte held the title of Senior Director of Human Interface and User Experience, and before working his magic at Palm, was one of the hands that touched the Sidekick and Helio UIs. Although Palm has confirmed his departure from the company, they aren't giving up the goods on where he's headed next, though John Paczkowski over at D says "multiple sources" indicate he's on his way to Google, presumably to work on Android.

While Matias was unquestionably a prime mover at Palm, we had heard rumblings that his rigid attitude toward design and control-freak nature sometimes caused conflict amongst the team. Of course, you don't crank out something as groundbreaking as webOS without some hard boundaries. The news that he's headed to Google could signal a major shift for Android towards dealing with the myriad UI issues the mobile OS has, particularly a lack of cohesion in the stock builds -- something HTC has gone to great lengths to shore up with Sense.

Update: And it's confirmed. Matias will be joining Sidekick pal Andy Rubin over at Google as Android's User Experience Director. Watch out HTC... and everyone else for that matter.

Surpriiiise! After three months of radio silence, the Motorola Shadow — a phone that, according to the shakiest rumors in all of Rumorville, might be the Google Nexus Two — is still alive.
At least, a phone that could be the Motorola Shadow is alive. It’s all a bit confusing; you see, a few days ago, [...]

For the past few days, Nokia has been trying to get everyone excited about.. something. They piqued our interests by sending out press event invites (for separate events in the UK and the US, no less), then revved the hype machine with a good ol’ fashion countdown timer.
The US announcement is still a few hours [...]

We’re big fans of the idea of external keyboards for the iPhone around these parts, so I more than get where ION’s going with the nearly full-sized keyboard accessory they just launched. Unfortunately, decisions on Apple’s part keep the idea from really being worthwhile.
You see, limitations of the iPhone platform prevent accessories like this from [...]

Chalk this one up as a rumor, but it's looking like Droid is going to be an army, rather then a lone warrior. There's been some rumblings that at least other handset manufacturers are creating their own Droids as well.

RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Daon®, a leading provider of identity management and authentication solutions worldwide, and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), today announced that AAAE is the initial pilot participant to...

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Faith Wonderworks, Inc. (FWW) that is known for its mobile entertainment site in Japan established “Kids App Planet”- a new label specializing in educational for smartphones and tablets geared for...